: Nokia’s stock soars toward a record gain on record volume, for no apparent reason

United States

Shares of Nokia Corp. shot higher in very volatile and active trading Wednesday, enough for the Finland-based networking company to comment on the activity.

“Nokia is not aware of any material, undisclosed corporate developments or material change in its business or affairs that has not been publicly disclosed that would account for the recent increase in the market price or trading volume of its shares,” the company said in a statement.

The stock NOK, +59.15% soared 47.8% in afternoon trading toward a five-year high. That would be the biggest one-day percentage gain since it started trading in February 1991.

Trading volume spiked up to 752.7 million shares, also a record, and well above the full-day average of about 47.3 million shares.

Nokia’s stock had already been halted five times for volatility through afternoon trading, and was also halted once for news before the company commented on the stock movement.

Nokia’s stock was the second-most active on the New York Stock Exchange, behind only the 941.2 million shares traded in AMC Entertainment Holding Inc.’s AMC stock. AMC has been part of a group of stocks, including GameStop Corp.’s GME, +114.89%, that have been skyrocketing as investors flocked to potential short-squeeze candidates.

Don’t miss: GameStop, AMC trading are now being restricted at TD Ameritrade, Schwab.

Also read: It isn’t just GameStop: Here are some other heavily shorted stocks shooting higher.

But while Nokia’s short interest was relatively high at about 50.5 million shares, according to the latest data — AMC’s short interest was about 39 million shares — short interest as a percent of the public float was relatively low at 0.9%; AMC’s short interest as a percent of float was about 69%.

See related: Short sellers are not evil, but they are misunderstood.

The previous records for Nokia’s stock were a gain of 31.3% and volume of 591.2 million shares, both reached on Sept. 3, 2013, after the company announced the sale of its devices and services business to Microsoft Corp. MSFT for EUR3.8 billion ($ 5 billion).

Nokia’s stock has now rallied 64.9% over the past three months, while the S&P 500 index SPX, -1.91% has gained 11.8%.